tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post8733944219862965129..comments2015-03-31T08:42:38.610-07:00Comments on TOM CLARK: Carl Spitzweg: Back to BooksZephirinenoreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-35001655567747269952010-12-29T10:39:23.622-08:002010-12-29T10:39:23.622-08:00De nada, says the conductor.
(We are on a bus in...De nada, says the conductor. <br /><br />(We are on a bus in Lima, Peru.)TChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-89294869895656768552010-12-29T03:24:26.881-08:002010-12-29T03:24:26.881-08:00Those paintings are real good. Total fun to read e...Those paintings are real good. Total fun to read each of these comments.<br /><br />Your last comment satisfies all my inquisitions over the last two nights regarding books and the two paintings- The Forbidden Path, c. 1840 (Sammlung Georg Schäfer, Schweinfurt) and The Bachelor, n.d. (Museum der Bildenden Künste, Leipzig).<br /><br /> Some times you don&#39;t need to ask for it. Like the bus just stopped over for nothing but you very coincidentally had to take a piss. Thank you conductor should i say.adityahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16078144194220301083noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-11493800090020159012010-12-28T10:49:59.431-08:002010-12-28T10:49:59.431-08:00&quot;The readers are always alone, love is their ...&quot;The readers are always alone, love is their forbidden path. Or if it&#39;s not love at least they don&#39;t have any female company...&quot;<br /><br />That&#39;s Spitzweg&#39;s major theme: those who don&#39;t get the girl, are left to drown their sorrows in a book; or, sometimes, it&#39;s this variation: those who are in the melancholy habit of spending their lives with their noses in a book are denying themselves a chance to get the girl, or to see the sunlight on the wings of the bird, or the gleam of twilight on the Isar...<br /><br />According to the catalogue of the Neue Pinakotek, Munich, Spitzweg was, indeed, self-taught... and evidently a bit sensitive on that point.<br /><br />This is from their mini-essay on him:<br /><br />&quot;Carl Spitzweg came from well to do middle class circumstances and originally worked as a pharmacist. Only after suffering a serious illness did he decide to follow his real calling and dedicate himself entirely to painting. Thanks to his established position in society and an inheritance, he was able to practice his art with no financial worries. Nevertheless the loner Spitzweg, who was self-taught, insisted on acknowledgement as a professional artist. This, however, came only in 1868 when he was named honorary member of the Munich Art Academy. During his lifetime Spitzweg sold upwards of 400 paintings. His admirers and buyers came especially from the new buying power of the positioned middle class, even though the real popularity that he enjoys today came only after the second World War.&quot;<br /><br />Artur, it&#39;s wonderful to think about the grand Abyss of Connection between Spitzweg&#39;s Bookworm and my pedantic, ridiculous, accident-prone doppelgänger, <a href="http://tomclarkblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/tour-of-doctor-syntax-in-search-of.html" rel="nofollow">Doctor Syntax</a>.<br /><br />(I hereby leave him in your lap with your name on the label, so that you will get at least some of the blame.)TChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-26549207990366644312010-12-28T07:43:16.074-08:002010-12-28T07:43:16.074-08:00Tom,
Ah, that man on the ladder looking at his bo...Tom,<br /><br />Ah, that man on the ladder looking at his books, that man at his desk looking up at the visitor. I spent my yesterday going up the ladder, patching leak in roof (otherwise the books would sit under the umbrella). My visitor today is a gull flapping toward ridge. . . . <br /><br /><br />12.28<br /><br />light coming into cloud above blackness<br />of ridge, pattern of leaves on branches<br />in foreground, sound of wave in channel<br /><br /> there in marks, composition<br /> different from design<br /><br /> what keeps itself concealed,<br /> to be that which, its<br /><br />silver of sunlight reflected in channel,<br />whiteness of gull flapping toward ridgeSTEPHEN RATCLIFFEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12339481653546188412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-57219214393599720772010-12-28T06:42:33.288-08:002010-12-28T06:42:33.288-08:00Yes, I like the similar gestures of the readers to...Yes, I like the similar gestures of the readers too, Julia. Except in the room of the poor poet, the viewer is always looking upwards at the reader (and that makes me guess he wasn&#39;t self-taught).<br /><br />Artur.abadguidehttp://abadguide.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-25989627598060098812010-12-27T18:35:27.685-08:002010-12-27T18:35:27.685-08:00Just now, revisiting the images, I discovered the ...Just now, revisiting the images, I discovered the obvious idea: the readers are always alone, love is their forbidden path. Or if it&#39;s not love at least they don&#39;t have any female company, like the no-readers.<br />There&#39;s some truth in this. But is not all the truth, luckily. (But where is all the truth? Not among us, luckily)Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16419101761966668410noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-13889752209851600142010-12-27T16:54:33.963-08:002010-12-27T16:54:33.963-08:00hahaha, oh you&#39;re all so first world!! ;-)hahaha, oh you&#39;re all so first world!! ;-)Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16419101761966668410noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-6558356412176277332010-12-27T16:47:18.728-08:002010-12-27T16:47:18.728-08:00the umbrella is so placed to reflect the light dow...the umbrella is so placed to reflect the light down onto the pages of the book<br /><br />much the same as photographers use black umbrellas to reflect /aim light on the subject they are shooting<br /><br />it also helps contain and direct heat <br /><br />like<br /><br />put a board covered with aluminum foil behind your radiators to reflect out the heat<br /><br />or a tin pie=plate behind a kerosene lantern to reflect outward the light<br /><br />or prisms in a light-house<br /><br /><br /><br />Poor Poets/Painters use what they have at-the-ready<br />to do-make/what/they/do make.<br /><br />this artist is &quot;self&quot; taught .... I betcha!Ed Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11285310130024785775noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-56291094238628252162010-12-27T16:41:42.001-08:002010-12-27T16:41:42.001-08:00Thank you for this, Tom.
I love the similar gestur...Thank you for this, Tom.<br />I love the similar gestures of the readers.<br />The umbrella must be protecting the poor poet from a &quot;gotera&quot; (let me look in the dictionary... a leak ¡eso!) a leak in (?) the ceiling. He lacks, among other things, of a good architect like you, Artur.Juliahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16419101761966668410noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-69990140235564852332010-12-27T12:15:02.564-08:002010-12-27T12:15:02.564-08:00All of those -- I love The Visit -- but what about...All of those -- I love The Visit -- but what about The Poor Poet with his umbrella? Oh well, at least some sunlight seems to be coming into his room, unlike some other poets we could mention, but why the inflated umbrella over his bed? What about drips? The books and the stepladder remind me of <a href="http://www.grosvenorprints.com/jpegs/15782.jpg" rel="nofollow">Dr Syntax &amp; the bookseller</a>.<br /><br />Artur.abadguidehttp://abadguide.wordpress.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-91300837405189234512010-12-27T10:34:32.854-08:002010-12-27T10:34:32.854-08:00wonderful post Tom.wonderful post Tom.phaneronoemikonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08430230355065457354noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-59522443656157961302010-12-27T08:18:06.004-08:002010-12-27T08:18:06.004-08:00Curtis,
Your picking up on WB&#39;s &quot;our chi...Curtis,<br /><br />Your picking up on WB&#39;s &quot;our children would &#39;have a better life&#39;&quot; for some reason caused me to think of<br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPFJtfstSOg&amp;feature=related" rel="nofollow">this</a>. <br /><br />(Maybe Jane will know it?)<br /><br />&quot;Sometimes all it takes is one voice.&quot;<br /><br /><br />Steve,<br /><br />Few bookworms among the hawks and cormorants,<br /><br />though <br /><br />the leaf<br />at the bottom<br /><br />could perhaps be &quot;read&quot; as a &quot;page&quot;...?TChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-59468289189911569902010-12-27T07:50:19.909-08:002010-12-27T07:50:19.909-08:00Tom,
Yes, &quot;back to books&quot; -- my visitor...Tom,<br /><br />Yes, &quot;back to books&quot; -- my visitor this morning was the red-tailed hawk, and those cormorants. . . .<br /><br /><br />12.27<br /><br />red-orange of sky on horizon above black<br />plane of trees, silver of planet by leaf<br />in foreground, sound of waves in channel<br /><br /> triangle formed by the leaf<br /> at the bottom, center<br /><br /> surface tilts into viewer’s<br /> horizon, plane, whose<br /><br />silver of sunlight reflected in channel,<br />cormorants flapping across toward pointSTEPHEN RATCLIFFEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12339481653546188412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-34463128529055870302010-12-27T07:23:13.526-08:002010-12-27T07:23:13.526-08:00It&#39;s almost impossible to describe how much I ...It&#39;s almost impossible to describe how much I like everything about this, even Benjamin&#39;s small remonstrance at the bottom, which I suppose is correct, although it makes me think of my daughter when she adopts a certain facial expression and says to me &quot;all right then, BE that way.&quot; Books, genii and ravens. This is just lovely.curtisrobertshttp://curtisroberts.livejournal.com/noreply@blogger.com